


step by step

by darkcyan



Category: Shirobako (Anime)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 15:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7647304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkcyan/pseuds/darkcyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ema offers Midori some advice.</p>
<p>(Some steps are scarier than others.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	step by step

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sencha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sencha/gifts).



> Thank you, dear recipient, for giving me an excuse to write for this show that I love so much. :) I hope you enjoy the result!

The faint scent of karaage drifted across Ema’s desk, and her stomach gurgled audibly enough to make her almost mess up a line. She looked up, abashedly certain that everyone else had heard it too, but Ogasawara-san and Iguchi-san didn’t even move, and Sugie-san just smiled gently at her over his bento. 

It was long past dinner time, but she’d been hoping to finish just a few more frames before she left –

Her stomach gurgled again, and she sighed quietly, putting down her pencil. 

She’d buy a bento and come back.  She hated the extra expense, but if she went home at this point, she wouldn’t be back until morning. 

Iguchi-san glanced up and gave her a quick smile as Ema passed.  With Musani doing both _Two Piece_ and _Marginal Village Depopulation Girl_ this coming year, there was more than enough character design work to keep both her and Ogasawara-san busy. 

Iguchi-san had threatened to make Ema help with the character design work, too – but instead had only recommended that she be the animation director for one of the _Two Piece_ episodes. 

_Only_.

But Ema was thinking about food right now, not … that.  

The office had started to slow down for the night – plenty of people were still around and working, but mostly keeping to themselves. It had taken Ema a while to get used to all the bustle of the afternoons and early evenings at Musani, but now it felt almost too quiet. 

She peered into the director’s cubicle block.  He, Madoka-san, and Yamada-san all looked like they’d gone for the day, but –

“Rii-chan?  Are you all right?”

The other girl unfolded from where she’d splayed herself across her desk in abject defeat.  “Ema-senpai?  Why are – if you need the director, he just left.”

Ema shook her head.  “I’m not, I was just on my way to buy a bento.  Do you want me to get you something, too?”

Midori leapt to her feet.  “That sounds like a brilliant idea, I’ll come with you.” She made a face.  “It’s not like I’m getting much done here, anyway.”

“What are you working on right now?” Ema asked as they stepped outside.  The sun had already disappeared behind the nearby buildings, but the sky was still painted in vivid reds and yellows. She paused to appreciate the view, and beside her Midori pulled out her phone and took a picture. 

“Maitake-san asked me to write the scenario for episode 5 of _Marginal Village Depopulation Girl_ ,” Midori said as they started walking again.

“Really?  Rii-chan, that’s _great_!”

“I know,” Midori said. She didn’t sound happy.  “It’s a wonderful opportunity, and Kinoshita-san’s ideas for the story sound really neat, it was a lot of fun watching him and Maitake-san figure out the overall scenario, but episode 5 is an important episode and what if I mess it up?  What if I ruin everything?”

“You’re –” _not going to mess it up_ , Ema almost said, but she remembered how Aoi’s reassurances had felt, when she was struggling to figure out the cat scene in _Exodus!._   She’d appreciated that Aoi cared, but it hadn’t _helped_. In some ways, it had just increased her fear of failure, because if she hadn't succeeded, she'd have been letting Aoi down, too.

“Maitake-san said he’d look through it and help me tighten up anything that needed fixing, but what if there’s too much?  What if he decides he doesn’t want to teach me anymore?  What if –”

_When that happens … take a walk._

Ema eyed the slowly darkening sky, thought of the work stacked up on her desk, and decided it was worth it.  “Let’s eat our dinner elsewhere; I want to show you something.”

* * *

“Wow, this is a really pretty park.” Midori said, gazing around her in apparent delight.  “How did you find it?”

“Iguchi-san showed it to me.  She said that sometimes when you’re stuck, the best thing you can do is get up and take a walk.” Ema hesitated.  “It really helped.  Not just because she introduced me to Nyajiro when I was trying to draw cats, but.” She made a helpless gesture.  “I think it’s just … easier to think, here.”

Even though she’d come here for Midori’s benefit, she could feel herself relaxing, too.  Maybe she’d needed this more than she thought. 

Midori threw her arms outward, took a deep breath, and exhaled in a sharp burst. 

“... I don’t think Maitake-san would hate you,” Ema said.  “Even if he asks you to redo everything.  I … for a long time, I thought that Segawa-san hated me, because she asked for retakes all the time.  But I think she just … saw that I could be better, and wanted to help me get there?”

“… I know,” Midori said.  “I just wish I was better _now_.”

Ema laughed quietly.  “I think we all feel that way.”

She sat down on a nearby bench and opened her bento.  After a moment, Midori followed.

“How do you deal with it?” She asked, after several minutes of quiet chewing.

“I try to remind myself that it’s a process,” Ema said.  “And that I’m a lot better now than I was back in high school.  So if I keep trying, I like to think I’ll keep improving.”

Midori brightened.  “I feel like I’m a lot better than I was in high school, too.  But then I look at Maitake-san …”

Ema nodded.  “It can be hard, being surrounded by people who are that much better than you.  But I think it’s good, too.  It helps me, I don’t know … see the path forward better?”

“It really does!  I’ve learned so much from working with everyone.”

Midori looked upwards, idly kicking her feet.  A light breeze blew through, pleasantly cool against the lingering warmth of the day. 

Ema finished her bento and closed her eyes, enjoying the quiet. 

“I think the scenario’s wrong,” Midori said in a sudden rush of words.  “But who am I to think that, when they’ve been doing this so much longer?  I'm probably just missing something.”

“Or maybe you’re right,” Ema said.  “Why do you think it’s wrong?”

“Well, it’s a pretty important episode, right?  Asari-chan has been traveling alone with her motorcycle for so long, looking for clues to humanity’s survival, when he suddenly takes her into a different world and reveals that he’s been a fairy all along –”

Ema blinked. “Wait, who is he?”

“The motorcycle,” Midori said. 

“… Asari-chan has a head, right?” 

“Of course!  This isn’t _Vroom Vroom_ , it’s just Asari-chan’s motorcycle who’s a fairy, not her.”

“Oh, good.” Ema had been almost completely focused on _Two Piece_ , but she thought she’d have noticed a character design like that.  “I wonder if Mii-chan will get to work on the motorcycle.”

Midori brightened.  “That would be really cool!”  They shared grins.  “So there’s been some foreshadowing in the first couple of episodes, right? Like, in episode three when she’s being attacked by some bandits and he swerves out of the way just in time to save her life.” 

Ema nodded encouragingly. 

“But then suddenly he takes her to this completely new place – meanwhile she's freaking out because her motorcycle is  _moving on its own_ – and reveals that he’s something – someone – completely different from what she thought, and she just accepts it.  Wouldn’t she be mad?  They’ve been traveling together for _years_.”

“I’d probably be mad,” Ema agreed cautiously. “Unless he had a really good reason.”

“Right?!  And he _does_ , but even then, I feel like I’d resent him, you know?  But she doesn’t at all, which _totally_ doesn’t fit her character, I mean, in episode two we find out that she’s _still_ holding a grudge against her big sister for abandoning her ten years ago –”

Ema nodded again.  “Do you think you should talk to Maitake-san or Kinoshita-san about this?” she asked.  “Sometimes it can be hard to think of all the details until you’re in the middle of drawing them.  Or writing them, I guess.  So maybe they just ... didn't think of these details yet?”

“Maybe,” Midori said, and made a face.  “But what if I’m wrong?  What if there’s some underlying core to her character that I haven’t understood, which makes everything just make sense, and they’ll just laugh at me or tell me that I don't deserve to work on this project –”

“Do you really think they would?” Ema asked. 

“No, but.” Midori kicked at the dirt. 

“Or you could ask Oi-chan?” Ema suggested.  “She’s been in a lot of those meetings, too, right?”

“Oh! Yeah, I’ll do that!” Midori spontaneously hugged Ema.  “Thank you so much for showing me this place, it really helped.”

Ema just smiled.  “It does, doesn’t it?”

* * *

“Ema-senpai!  Over here!”

Ema slid into an open seat at their usual small table in the restaurant where Shizuka still worked part-time.  “Oi-chan asked me to pass on her apologies for not being able to make it,” she said.  “She thought the meeting would be over by now – it's been seven hours – but ...”

“Being production desk sounds really intense,” Shizuka said, shuddering.  “I’m really glad that’s not _my_ job.”

Ema nodded her fervent agreement, and watched Midori and Misa do the same.  “She seems to really enjoy it, though.”

“Well, that’s Oi-chan-senpai,” Shizuka said. “Speaking of jobs –” she paused dramatically. 

Ema and the other two waited with bated breath. 

“I got another callback! For a recurring character, this time!”

“Zuka-chan-senpai, that’s amazing!” Midori said excitedly. 

“Congratulations!” Ema said, and was glad her drink had been delivered so she had an excuse to swallow.  Shizuka had worked so _hard_ , and had so much less success than the rest of them …

“Congratulations,” Misa echoed, also smiling. “What role?”

“Thanks guys,” Shizuka said.  “It’s for the younger sister character in _My Bear is Secretly My Girlfriend?!_ , so it’s not actually _that_ big of a deal.  The episodes are only a couple minutes long, and my character isn’t even in half of them.”

“It _is_ a big deal,” Midori insisted. “It’s like this brings you a step closer to your dream, right?”

Shizuka looked down, embarrassed and pleased. “That’s true.  And.  They said that the job I did with Lucy was what made them think I’d be perfect for the role.” She bit her lip.  “I’m not sure … I don’t want to end up being typecast, but.”

“Today is a day of celebration,” Midori said firmly.  “No doubts allowed until later.”

Shizuka grinned and saluted.  “Aye, sir.”

“It’s sad that we’re not all working on the same project anymore, though.” Midori said.

“Actually –” Misa said.  All eyes turned towards her.  “My studio is doing the CG for _My Bear is Secretly My Girlfriend?!_.  The president said he was thinking of branching out, and that this would be a good opportunity, since it’s just a few scenes, and they’re very short.”

“Oh, the – that one scene?” Shizuka asked.  “I’m not in that episode, but it sounds like it’ll be a really fun one!”

“Yeah.” Misa grinned at her.  “He also said most of the work will probably be coming to me, since I’m almost done with another project and I have experience working with animals from _Aerial Girls_.” She turned.  “I may come to you for advice again, Ema-senpai.”

Ema could feel herself flushing.  “I’ll help if I can.”

“Ema-senpai gives great advice,” Midori said. 

Ema turned to her.  “That reminds me, how did your conversation with Oi-chan go?” 

“… She said basically the same thing you did,” Midori pouted briefly.  “And that Honda-san had once told her not to be shy about talking to him, back when he was desk.  She said she thought that that was because if there _is_ a problem, the sooner you find out about it the better, since it gives you more of a chance to fix it.” 

Ema nodded. She thought she'd probably have had to do fewer retakes earlier on if she'd been less shy about asking for feedback from Iguchi-san and Ogasawara-san. “So you talked to Kinoshita-san and Maitake-san?”

“Yeah!  It went really well!  They both agreed, once I explained what was bothering me, and Maitake-san said I had a good eye for character consistency.”  Midori blushed. “I’m going to change the ending to episode five, and Maitake-san said he’d tweak episodes six and seven, too, to make the progression more natural.”  She fiddled with her drink.  “I showed him what I have so far, and he said it looked like it was on the right track.”

“That’s great news!” Ema said. 

“Yeah.” Midori’s smile turned wry.  “Probably all of my _actual_ scenario writing will still need to be scrapped and rewritten, but –”

Shizuka poked her.  “What did you just say about doubts?”

“Hahaha, aye sir.” Midori snapped off a salute of her own.

“What are you writing?” Misa asked. “Is it something for _Two Piece_?”

Midori shook her head.  “It’s for the other show Musani’s working on right now, another original.  I’m writing the scenario for one of the episodes.”

“Wow,” Misa said.  “That’s really cool.  Ema-senpai, are you working on that show too?”

Ema shook her head.  “I’ll probably be doing mostly _Two Piece_.  I’ve been asked to be animation director on one of the episodes, too.  Maybe more, if that goes well, or we get too strained for time.” She looked down at her drink.  “I’m not sure how well I'll do; the art style is just so different from anything else I've done so far.”

“But!” she added hastily, at the sight of Shizuka’s threatening finger.  “I’m going to do my best, anyway.”

Surrounded by warmth and friends, it didn't seem so difficult.

“Good,” Shizuka said. 

Misa abruptly raised her glass.  “We may be working on mostly different projects right now, but.  To getting one step closer to our goal.”

“Kanpai!”

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. Yes I did in fact have too much fun coming up with the fake anime references. XD


End file.
